Note 2. The words ví yád vártanta enyãh have received various explanations. Wilson translates: 'When the rivers rush in various directions.' Sâyana admits also another meaning: 'When the rivers grow.' Ludwig translates: 'Sich verteilend gehn die schimmernden auszeinander.' Grassmann, very boldly: 'Wie Hengste träufelnd, wenn vom Wege heimgekehrt, sie zu den bunten Stuten gehn.' Vi-vrit seems, however, to have a very special meaning, namely, rolling on the ground, and this the spotted deer are here said to have done, like horses at the end of their journey. We read of the sacrificial horse, Sat. Br. XIII, 5, 1, 16. sa yady ava vâ gighred vi vâ varteta, samriddho me yagña iti ha vidyât; cf. XI, 2, 5, 3. In the TS. VII, I, 19, 3, the commentator explains vivartanam by nirgatya bhûmau vilunthanam, the rolling on the ground. The same meaning is applicable to Mahâparinibbâna Sutta, p. 66 (Childers), where the Bhikkhus are said to roll on the ground when they hear of Buddha's death; also to Mahâbh. III, 11953 (of a wild boar). The meaning therefore in our passage seems to be, when the deer roll on the ground, as horses are wont to do at the end of a journey.

Verse 8.

Note 1. Amâ´t corresponds here to prithivi in other places. Originally it may have meant from the home.

Verse 9.

This verse has often been discussed on account of the names of the rivers which it contains. Syâvâsva had mentioned the Yamunâ in 52, 17, and some interpreters have been inclined to give to parushnî in 52, 9 a geographical meaning, taking it for the river Ravi, instead of translating it by cloud. The geographical names are certainly interesting, but they have been discussed so often that I need not dwell on them here. (See M. M., India. p. 163.)

The Rasâ, known to the Zoroastrians as the Ranhâ, was originally the name of a real river, but when the Âryas moved away from it into the Punjâb, it assumed a mythical character, and became a kind of Okeanos, surrounding the extreme limits of the world.

Anitabhâ seems to be the name of a new river or part of a river. It can hardly be taken as an epithet of Rasâ, as Ludwig suggests. Anitabhâ, whose splendour has not departed (Ludwig), or, amitabhâ, of endless splendour, would hardly be Vedic formations. (Chips, I, p. 157; Hibbert Lect., p. 207; India, pp. 166, 173, notes.)

Kubhâ is the Κωφήν or Κωφής of the Greeks, the Kabul river. The Krumu I take to be the Kurrum. (India, p. 177, note.)

The Sindhu is the Indus, though it is difficult to say which part of it, while the Sarayu has been supposed to be the Sarayû, the affluent of the Gaṅgâ, but may also be a more general name for some more northern river in the Punjâb. (See Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 17 f., 45; Muir, S. T. II, p. xxv, note.)

Verse 10.